Well, with Nintendo winding down the Switch after a nearly decade-long run in favor of its successor, I think it's about time I made a list about it. So here's my top fifteen.
HM. Hyrule Warriors: Definitive Edition (Omega Force/Team Ninja, 2018)
It's not the first version of Hyrule Warriors to exist - first it was on the Wii U, then it had a 3DS port, and then this one with all the DLC packed in - but it's still my favorite of the Warriors subseries. Combining the series' trademark over-the-top action with an homage to all the various incarnations of the Zelda franchise lends itself to a surprisingly good time. In addition to many familiar characters from the franchise both well-known and more obscure, there's quite a few new original characters too, like Lana, Linkle, Wizzro and Volga. When you're in the mood for some silly action with a lot of flair, Warriors never disappoints. Or always disappoints if you just hate fun.
HM. Devil May Cry 3 (Capcom, 2020)
The Devil May Cry games have gotten plenty of rereleases and compilations since their heyday on the PS2, so it was a bit bizarre to see the first three games get separately-packaged digital releases on the Switch. Devil May Cry 3 is an undeniable action classic though, and Capcom threw in a new feature to this port to sweeten the deal - the new Dynamic mode allows you to switch between Dante's fighting styles on the fly, rather than having to do so either at a stage checkpoint or between levels. So you can perform all your flashy moves in any given battle and show who the true combo master is.
15. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (Nintendo, 2017)
Mario Kart 8 is another carryover from the Wii U, but it got more than enough extra content to qualify as a distinct release. With plenty of new tracks added via DLC packs and even some cameo characters from other franchises like Splatoon, Zelda and Animal Crossing, it's got more than enough for any fan of arcade combat racing. It's also built on a fun gimmick - namely anti-gravity sections on each track where knocking into other racers actually gives you a speed boost, which only adds to the franchise's usual chaotic fun factor. The Mario Kart franchise remains the best selling game on virtually every Nintendo platform for good reason!
14. Super Mario Bros. Wonder (Nintendo, 2023)
Mario Wonder draws heavily from the New Super Mario Bros. subseries with its 2D action and focus on co-op elements, but it adds a clever new twist in the form of Wonder Flowers. Each stage has one and it changes things up in unique and clever ways in each stage, often set to trippy music and visuals to boot. It keeps you playing because you want to see just what insanity it's going to toss your way next. Of course it also helps that there's some clever new powerups to use too, like Elephant, Drill and Bubble powerups, and of course the requisite hellishly hard bonus stage at the very end that will test even the most die-hard players.
13. Sonic Mania Plus (Christian Whitehead/PagodaWest Games/Headcannon/Hyperkinetic Studios/Tantalus Media, 2018)
If you're like me you probably fell off the Sonic wagon after it collapsed into disappointing 3D sequels and a slew of low effort ports and remakes that mostly coast by on nostalgia rather than adding anything new or interesting to the format. Well, Sonic Mania is guilty of that to a degree (lots of familiar stages, though they do at least add some creative twists to them), but it also feels more like classic Sonic than it has in decades - fast paced, colorful fun with a lot of secrets to find and bonuses to unlock. Plus adds in some more story content and even brings back two obscure and long-neglected series protagonists, Ray the Flying Squirrel and Mighty the Armadillo.
12. Blaster Master Zero 1-3 (Inti Creates, 2017/2019/2021)
Blaster Master is another franchise that's had a slew of sequels, remakes and reboots over the years of varying quality, but Inti Creates' Zero trilogy is easily the best I've seen. The first is a fairly straight remake of the first game with added story scenes (and a combination of its eastern and western plotlines), while 2 and 3 continue the story by embarking onto new worlds with changed-up mechanics and gameplay elements. Beautifully animated 2D graphics, gameplay that's challenging but fair, and a solid take on the Metroid-style exploration format of the classic games make these easily the best games to bear the name.
11. River City Girls 2 (WayForward, 2022)
WayForward has become one of my favorite game developers in recent years for their high-energy game design paired with a genuinely hilarious sense of humor, so when I saw them take on a classic like River City Ransom, I made sure to grab a copy. River City Girls 2 manages to be even bigger and better with four player co-op, more playable characters and a somehow even more absurd storyline than the first, centered on the ditzy but hilarious Kyoko and Misako battling a new evil force. If you loved the old RPG beat-em-up hybrid on the NES (or GBA), this is a fantastic fresh take on it.
10. Ultra Street Fighter II (Capcom, 2017)
Yet another new version of Street Fighter 2? In 2017? Exclusively for the Switch?! Well... yes. But when the original game is such a genre defining classic, it's pretty hard to go wrong. The game's balance is remixed once more and a couple of new minigames and features (like a color edit mode) are added. As are two new-ish characters in Evil Ryu and Violent Ken, both of whom are rather hilariously overpowered but extremely fun to play as. It may not meet anyone's standards for serious competitive play, but I still had a ton of fun playing it.
9. Triangle Strategy (Square Enix/Artdink, 2022)
If you told me the guys who made Aquanaut's Holiday and Tail of the Sun would be making some of my favorite RPGs in the years to come I'd call you a nutcase. But Artdink has made some excellent efforts there, and this is one of them. Triangle Strategy isn't quite the Final Fantasy Tactics successor everyone hoped for, but it is a deep, challenging and surprisingly fun game - using each character's unique capabilities to conquer your enemy's forces is a lot of fun. Flying behind them, laying out traps and ping-ponging them between two characters for added damage is all great stuff. But it's also got plenty of replay value owing to its branching story paths, and unlike most games of its time, it's not a unilateral choice - you have to convince your allies to vote in favor of your next plan of action.
8. Shantae and the Seven Sirens (WayForward, 2020)
The fifth entry in the series about the half-genie heroine, Seven Sirens adds some new twists to the format. Returning to the open-ended exploration of earlier games after a foray into stage-based design, Shantae now gets the ability to morph into many new forms to traverse the environment, allowing her to climb, burrow and swim at high speeds as well as multi-jump. In addition to that, fusion magic serves as both powerful attacks and means to get past certain obstacles, and various monster cards can be collected and equipped to boost her core abilities, sometimes in quite overpowered fashion (like filling the screen with barrages of homing missiles). Another enjoyable game in a consistently fun series.
7. Super Mario Maker 2 (Nintendo, 2019)
I wasn't especially taken in with the first Mario Maker game - it felt a bit limited in what you could make with it, plus the online space was just dominated by junk levels full of hammer brothers and note blocks rather than providing anything genuinely fun. Mario Maker 2 expands your options substantially, allowing you to utilize levels and elements from Mario 1, 3, World and New Super Mario Bros, and even a few traits from Super Mario Land and other games. It also comes with some comprehensive tutorials to give tips on designing good levels, which significantly cut down on the junk. A tool that lets you really create some fantastic 2D Mario stages.
6. Live a Live (Historia/Square Enix, 2022)
A cult classic Super Famicom RPG that unexpectedly got a new lease on life in the HD era, with its gameplay rebalanced and its aesthetics upgraded to Square Enix's trademark HD-2D style. It's a unique take on the genre too, being comprised of seven short stories that each star an individual character, followed by an eighth story at the end that brings them all together to battle a common foe. They span all of this world's history too, from a giant robot pilot in the future to a professional wrestler to a caveman to a ninja on an assassination mission. It got people hoping that if it did well, we might also see ports of some other long-neglected games like Bahamut Lagoon and Treasure of the Rudras; that hasn't quite happened yet, but nevertheless Live a Live is a game worth your consideration.
5. Metroid Dread (MercurySteam/Nintendo, 2021)
The ninth entry in the Metroid franchise is definitely a weird mashup of gameplay styles. The gameplay retains a fast-paced edge, with aggressive enemies, a quick counter move that can instantly defeat most normal enemies if well timed, and some downright intense boss battles that require precise twitch reflexes (and reward them with cinematic attacks that can rack up a lot of damage). In start contrast to that are the stealth segments, where you must hide from nearly-indestructible robots called EMMIs that can kill you instantly unless you perfectly time their counters, and you spend a good period of time memorizing their patterns and sneaking around them until you find a means to eliminate them for good. Bit of an odd contrast, but it's a solid Metroid title with no shortage of hidden secrets and challenge.
4. Super Mario RPG (ArtePiazza/Nintendo, 2023)
There have been a lot of Mario RPGs over the years, and most of them have been pretty decent. But the fans were never going to be satisfied until they brought back
the Super Mario RPG, so that's what they did. ArtePiazza and Nintendo remade the SNES classic in fine form, updating its visuals and music while keeping its core design almost entirely untouched. Not completely, though - the mechanics are a bit more polished now and there's a super move added that can be performed by charging up a bar, getting a different effect depending on your party composition. There's also some very tough new postgame challenges to complete for those who think they've mastered the game, and you will need to be on point with parrying and landing timed hits if you want to stand any chance at all.
3. Sea of Stars (Sabotage Studio, 2023)
I'm generally a skeptic of "homage RPGs", as 99 times out of 100 they're just aping the visual style of the 16-bit classics while serving up dated mechanics and lazily recycling ancient writing and character tropes with no real effort behind them. Sea of Stars is definitely an exception to that rule - while clearly inspired by games like Chrono Trigger, it's got enough imagination, heart and charm to stand on its own. Following the adventures of Zale and Valere, the two "Solstice Warriors" on a journey to save their world from a great evil, they run across a colorful cast of characters and have some truly imaginative adventures in varied environments. The gorgeous animation, plethors of sidequests and being just the right length (around 30 hours) ensure it never wears out its welcome either. Just a fantastic RPG experience I can't recommend enough.
2. Super Mario Odyssey (Nintendo, 2017)
It's Mario, so you know the score - the long-suffering Peach gets abducted again and Mario sets out to rescue her, this time on a flying ship that journeys around the planet to various colorful locales like a prehistoric world, a ruined floating castle and of course New Donk City. The gimmick this time is that Mario can toss Cappy - a sentient hat - to possess enemies and take command of their powers to traverse the environments and solve puzzles. A game that's familiar enough to be comfortable but adds a ton of new twists, hidden secrets and the series' usual unceasing sense of fun.
1. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (Nintendo/Monolith, 2023)
Breath of the Wild was definitely a changeup for the Zelda franchise, going to an almost entirely open-ended design philosophy and encouraging player creativity with the small handful of tools they were given (particularly as every weapon in the game would now break after a set number of hits). It felt a little lacking in some respects, though - the world was largely empty and there was a tangible lack of reward from most quests, so I didn't have much desire to come back once I finished. Tears of the Kingdom came out six years later and makes that game feel almost like an unfinished beta build in comparison. Retaining the same overall map but changing things up drastically with many new hidden caves, wells and other secrets, it also added two new entire layers to explore - ruins in the sky and a vast network of underground caverns. You get into them in the most logical yet cartoonish fashion possible, either launching yourself into the sky via giant catapults or simply leaping into the vast chasms now dotting the landscape. The game also changes up your powers quite a bit, putting heavy focus on building constructs out of parts, effectively adding a Garry's Mod bent to puzzle solving - virtually anything you imagine can be built to solve whatever problem you may have, and even most of the shrine puzzles now put focus on using tools in inventive ways to defeat overwhelming odds. Breakable weapons are retained, though with a bit more story justification now (Ganon's awakening causing all metal in the kingdom to corrode), and your new Fusion power allows you to stick virtually any object onto any wieldable stick, club or sword you find, creating powerful hybrids. An immersive sim that truly feels captivating, I ended up sitting in front of this one for well over 120 hours before I finished it and still barely feel like I scratched the surface of its potential. What a fantastically fun and groundbreaking game.
